Manish Malhotra's Kyunkii link

The ace designer will craft the look for actor Ram Kapoor, the new face on telly soap Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Thi.

After his wife Gautami, it's Kkassam Se star Ram Kapoor's turn to get into the long-running series Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi from July 4. Bollywood's ace designer Manish Malhotra has been roped in to design his new look.

This is not the first time Manish is helping out Ekta in giving a hip look to a character of her series. Earlier, he gave Sakshi Tanwar, the main protagonist of Kahani Ghar Ghar Kii series, a new makeover.

"As one of my brother Tusshar's friends in the US said, from a yawn Sakshi has become a jaw-dropper. After Sakshi, I felt no one could transform Ram like Manish.

"He plays a cross between Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Al Pacino in The Devil's Advocate. Ram plays an eccentric recluse who lives all alone with his cats," she added.

Ram will dress up very differently from how he does in Zee TV's Kkassam Se.

"The character will wear only green. He's quite a weird character, wacky and flamboyant like Glenn Close in 101 Dalmatians. He is also very satirical and over-the-top. I'd like to see him as a modern-day Kishore Kumar."

Now, apparently, other actors at Balaji are very keen to get a Manish Malhotra makeover.

"He's too big and busy to take on too much television. He's too busy doing the clothes for biggest of stars in the biggest of movies. He's also starting his own film. But he can never say no to me. I can't ask him more than once or twice a year to dress up someone in my serial."

Ram will be related to Tulsi's character in the serial in a big way. "But how, we can't reveal that now, can we?" chuckled Ekta.